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Snakes Improve Search-and-Rescue Robots

New Robot is Designed to Use Less Energy

Jan 19, 2012 | Atlanta, GA

Designing an all-terrain robot for search-and-rescue
missions is an arduous task for scientists. The machine must be flexible enough
to move over uneven surfaces, yet not so big that it’s restricted from tight
spaces. It might also be required to climb slopes of varying inclines. Existing
robots can do many of these things, but the majority require large amounts of energy
and are prone to overheating. Georgia Tech researchers have designed a new machine
by studying the locomotion of a certain type of flexible, efficient animal.

“By using their scales to control frictional properties,
snakes are able to move large distances while exerting very little energy,”
said Hamid Marvi, a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech.

While studying and videotaping the movements of 20 different
species at Zoo Atlanta, Marvi developed Scalybot 2, a robot that replicates
rectilinear locomotion of snakes. He unveiled the robot this month at the
Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB) annual meeting in
Charleston, S.C.

“During rectilinear
locomotion, a snake doesn’t have to bend its body laterally to move,”
explained Marvi. “Snakes lift their ventral scales and pull themselves forward
by sending a muscular traveling wave from head to tail. Rectilinear locomotion is
very efficient and is especially useful for crawling within crevices, an
invaluable benefit for search-and-rescue robots.”

Scalybot 2 can automatically change the angle of its scales when
it encounters different terrains and slopes. This adjustment allows the robot
to either fight or generate friction. The two-link robot is controlled by a
remote-controlled joystick and can move forward and backward using four motors.

“Snakes are highly maligned creatures,” said Joe Mendelson, curator
of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta. “I really like that Hamid’s research is showing
the public that snakes can help people.”

Marvi’s advisor is David Hu, an assistant professor in the
Schools of Mechanical Engineering and Biology. Hu and his research team are
primarily focused on animal locomotion. They’ve studied how dogs and other
animals shake water off their bodies and how mosquitos fly through rainstorms.

This isn’t the first time Hu’s lab has looked at snake locomotion.
Last summer the team developed Scalybot 1, a two-link climbing robot that replicates
concertina locomotion. The push-and-pull, accordion-style movement features
alternating scale activity.

This project is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF)
(Award No. PHY-0848894). The content is solely the responsibility of the principal
investigators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NSF.